The present invention relates to a current pickup shoe that can be fixed either upright or lying flat against a support surface, of the type comprising a housing which has a first set of passages for fixation screws, whose axes are perpendicular to a large surface of the housing for its securement flat against the support surface, a second set of passages for fixation screws, whose axes are perpendicular to those of the first set of screw passages, being provided for the securement of the housing upright on said support surface.
In known current pickup shoes of this type, the passages for the screws are conventionally constituted by notches or circular holes pierced in securement tongues formed of one piece with the housing of the pickup shoe and projecting from different sides of the latter. The notches or circular holes which constitute the first set of screw passages are usually formed in a first set of securement tongues which are located in a first plane, whilst the notches or circular holes constituting the second set of screw passages are formed in a second set of securement tongues, which are located in a second plane perpendicular to the first plane.
Current pickup shoes of this type have the advantage of being able to be mounted in one or the other of two different positions on the support surface. On the other hand, when the current pickup shoe is mounted on the support surface, the unused securement tongues increase the size of the current pickup shoe. This can constitute a difficulty for integrating the current pickup shoe into systems requiring a certain compactness.
Moreover, there are known current pickup shoes whose housing permits only a single mounting position (upright or recumbent). These latter current pickup shoes are generally of less size than the current pickup shoes with two manners or positions for mounting. On the other hand, when a user desires to have the possibility of integrating a current pickup shoe into various systems either in the upright position or in the recumbent position, as a function of needs, he must thus have in stock two types of current pickup shoes. This complicates the management of stocks and the maintenance, and also increases the cost of the stock.
The present invention thus has for its object to overcome this drawback, by providing a current pickup shoe which can be mounted as desired upright or recumbent, and which is particularly compact, in particular when it is recumbent.
To this end, the current pickup shoe according to the invention is characterized in that it comprises moreover at least one auxiliary flange element which is secured to the housing and assembled with it with shape mating only in the securement of the housing upright on the support surface, and in which is formed said second set of screw passages.
Under these conditions, when the current pickup shoe is mounted recumbent on the support surface, which is to say without the auxiliary flange element, no securement tongue that is not used projects from the housing of the pickup shoe, so that the latter is very compact. On the other hand, when the current pickup shoe is mounted in the upright position, only the securement tongues which are necessary for this method of mounting project from the housing, such that, here again, the current pickup shoe remains relatively compact. The user can thus choose to assemble or not the auxiliary flange element of the housing of the pickup shoe as a function of need, of stock control, and of maintenance. Even if, to have this choice, the user must have in stock two separate pieces, namely, on the one hand, the current pickup shoe and on the other hand the auxiliary flange element, this latter member is usually a much less costly piece than the current pickup shoe itself. As a result, the cost of the stock is reduced relative to the case where the user had to have two different types of current pickup shoe each for a single mounting position.
The current pickup shoe according to the invention can moreover have the following characteristics:
the auxiliary flange element is constituted by a flange having an internal surface which is applied against a large surface of the housing of the current pickup shoe, and an external surface which carries, on one edge, two spaced securement tongues which extend at a right angle outwardly relative to said external surface and in each of which is formed one of said screw passages of the second set;
with each securement tongue of the flange are associated two triangular reinforcing gussets, which are disposed on opposite sides of the corresponding screw passage of the securement tongue;
the internal surface of the flange has at least two tenons which are designed to enter, with a small play, each into one of the screw passages of the first set of screw passages of the housing;
said large surface of the housing against which the flange is applied, has a rectangular shape, said first set of screw passages comprises four passages located at the corners of said large surface, and the internal surface of said flange has four tenons each receivable in a respective passage of the housing;
in a preferred embodiment of the invention, the current pickup shoe comprises two auxiliary flange elements in the form of two flanges which are applied respectively against the opposite large surfaces of the housing;
the two flanges can thus be constituted by identical molded pieces;
two of the four tenons of each flange have a shouldered cylindrical hole, whose larger diameter part opens on the side of the external surface of the flange and forms a recess for the head of a self-tapping screw, and the two remaining tenons of each flange have a cylindrical fore-hole in which can be screwed a self-tapping screw whose head is located in the portion forming a recess of the shouldered hole and one of the two tenons with shouldered hole of the opposite flange;
each screw passage of the first set of screw passages is constituted by a well which passes through the housing from one large surface to the other and which has at its middle a partition which is pierced with a hole for the passage of the rod of the shank of a securement screw;
as is usual, the housing comprises a passage opening for a primary conductor through which an electric current to be measured flows; the flange or flanges comprise thus an opening which, when the flange is secured to the housing, coincides with the opening of the housing, and a collar which is formed of a single piece with the flange, on its external surface, and which surrounds the opening of the flange to support said primary conductor;
in another embodiment of the invention, said auxiliary flange element is constituted by an arch which surrounds the housing on three sides of the latter and of which each leg is provided, at its end, with a securement tongue in which is formed one of the passages for the screws of said second set of screw passages.
The invention also relates to a flange for a current pickup shoe, said flange being characterized in that it is shaped to be assembled shape-matingly to the housing of said current pickup shoe for the securement of said housing upright on said support surface, and in that said second set of screw passages is formed in said flang.